Double Payment -taxes pay for drug research, and then we front the money again at the counter

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: Double Payment -taxes pay for drug research, and then we front the money

again at the counter

 

 

>

> Double Payment

> by Robert Reich

> Our taxes pay for drug research, and then we front the money again

at

> the counter.

> 1665e6c.jpg

> Robert B. Reich is the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic

> Policy at Brandeis University, and was the Secretary of Labor under former

> President Bill Clinton.

>

>

> Prescription drugs are the largest single health-care expense for most

> Americans, especially seniors. And drug prices are rising at a whopping 17

> percent a year, more than four times faster than inflation. Pharmaceutical

> prices are higher in the United States than in any other country in the

> world. Thats why increasing numbers of Americans are filling their

> prescriptions in Canada.

>

> Its also why politicians of all stripes are eager to put their names on

> legislation providing prescription-drug benefits. Whatever emerges from

> this Congress is likely to be a complex and pricy sheme that will cost

> American taxpayers upwards of $400 billion over the next decade.

>

> Drug companies say all this money is necessary because research and

> development on new drugs is hugely expensive. Bringing a new drug to

market

> costs between $500 and $800 million. And we all benefit from what these

new

> drugs can do.

>

> But pharmaceutical companies dont own up to the fact that you and I are

> already paying twice for new drugs. Not only do we pay high and

> rapidly-escalating purchase prices for them. We also pay through our

taxes.

> You see, a portion of federal tax revenues goes to support drug research.

>

> For example, eight of the 10 most popular drugs produced by one of

Americas

> largest pharmaceutical companies were developed at the National Institutes

> of Health, which is a huge taxpayer-funded research complex. Most of

todays

> anti-cancer drugs also have come courtesy of the National Institutes of

> Health.

>

> Drug companies do research and development, of course. But they devote

only

> 12-and-a-half percent of their incomes to it, on average. They spend more

> than twice that on advertising and marketing. Much of the rest is profit.

> And drug companies are very, very profitable. During the recent downturn,

> the nations top 10 pharmaceutical companies reported a 33 percent increase

> in profits.

> http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9258